Activities

The organization, headquartered in Paris, is composed of 184 member organizations throughout the world. FIDH facilitates coordination between its member organizations, supports their activities, and mobilizes them for a variety of campaigns.

FIDH focuses on “three pillars of action” including “securing the freedom and capacity to act for human rights defenders, the universality of rights and their effectiveness.”

FIDH partners with highly politicized NGOs working in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. (See below for further information regarding FIDH members.)

Lawfare

FIDH is active in attempts to bring “war crimes” cases against Israeli officials at the International Criminal Court (ICC), including submitting case files following the 2009 Gaza conflict and a letter to President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas encouraging him to ratify the Rome Statute.

In 2015, FIDH actively lobbied for the PA to accede to the International Criminal Court.

During the 2014 Gaza conflict, FIDH wrote a letter to the UN Security Council alleging that the “operations of the Israeli Army constitute war crimes, and given the massive and systematic character of the killing of civilian populations, including children, the destruction of hospitals and schools, as well as entire areas in the North and the South of the Gaza Strip, further investigation may conclude that these actions amount to crimes against humanity.”

In 2011, FIDH attempted to bring charges against US officials traveling to Europe. Katherine Gallagher, Senior Staff Attorney at CCR and Vice President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), said, “Waterboarding is torture, and Bush has admitted, without any sign of remorse, that he approved its use…The reach of the Convention Against Torture is wide – this case is prepared and will be waiting for him wherever he travels next. Torturers – even if they are former presidents of the United States – must be held to account and prosecuted. Impunity for Bush must end.”

In 2010, FIDH signed a joint statement at the First Review Conference of the ICC’s Rome Statute falsely accusing Israel of impunity and “disregard for international and humanitarian law.” The organizations demanded that the ICC Prosecutor “make an urgent determination regarding the opening of an investigation into the situation in the OPT”; that “the UN Security Council…refer the situation to the ICC”; and that all States Parties to the ICC “take all appropriate measure, at the diplomatic and legal levels, to uphold the rule of law in the OPT.”

In 2009, FIDH and several of its Palestinian and Israeli member organizations held a series of meetings with officials at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to “explor[e] different avenues to bring justice to the victims of serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law” relating to the Gaza War and to discuss“ICC jurisdiction over the situation [in Palestine],” “the gravity of the crimes committed,” and “the willingness and capacity of national tribunals to conduct domestic proceedings for crimes under ICC jurisdiction.”

FIDH welcomed the November 2015 decision of the European Commission to label Israeli settlements goods, but called on the EU to “end all economic and commercial trade with the Israeli settlements, and to dissuade businesses from investing, maintaining and benefiting from economic relations with the Israeli settlements.”

Efforts to pressure Orange included attending the Orange annual shareholders meeting, and lobbying of the French government and the Palestinian Authority.

Other Anti-Israel Activities

In May 2018, FIDH signed on a call to the UN Human Rights Council to launch an “independent investigation into violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by Israel” in response to Gaza-border violence. The call accuses Israel of “excessive, indiscriminate and disproportionate use of lethal force… [that] may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity” (emphasis added). The call ignored the violent nature of the protests, which included Molotov cocktails, arson, and attempts to breach the border fence with Israel.

In December 2017, following President Trump recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, FIDH published a statement saying that the “US gives another blank check to Israel and its occupation and violation of Palestinians’ fundamental rights, notably their right to self-determination.”

In November 2015, in the midst of a wave of terrorism against Israeli civilians that included stabbings, shootings, and car rammings, FIDH and Al Haq wrote a joint letter to the European Union Foreign Affairs Ministers, condemning Israel’s security responses, and drawing attention to Israel’s “colonist enterprise” and called on them to “bring Israel’s unabated violations and occupation to an end.”

In December 2014, called on Members of the European Parliament to vote in favor of the recognition of the state of Palestine.

In July 2014, FIDH participated in the NGO campaign at the UN Human Rights Council to promote the establishment of a commission of inquiry on alleged crimes committed by Israel during the 2014 Gaza conflict (“Goldstone II”).

Passed a resolution at its 38th Congress (May 2013) condemning “Canada’s unconditional support of the State of Israel.” The resolution stated that the Government of Canada “supports human rights violations committed by Israel towards the Palestinians,” including “the occupation and colonization of Palestine,” “the Apartheid Wall,” and the “blockage of Gaza.” The resolution further claimed that Israel is an apartheid state and cited the discredited Goldstone Report.

Members

Adalah rejects the legitimacy of the Jewish state, attempting to portray it as inherently racist and discriminatory; regularly lobbies the Israeli Supreme Court and international bodies to adopt its agenda.

Publishes an online “Discriminatory Laws Database” that claims to collect “text, analyses, and legal action for present and proposed discriminatory laws in Israel and the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territories].” This deceptive list does not distinguish between laws and legislative proposals and refers to Zionism pejoratively. Furthermore, laws regarding the historic Jewish connection to Israel are labeled as discriminatory, including the use of symbols and the Hebrew calendar.

Highly active in anti-Israel lawfare campaigns, exploiting courts and international legal bodies to seek arrest warrants against Israeli government officials, file lawsuits against companies and governments doing business with Israel, and lobby for cases against Israelis at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Active in lawfare suits against Israel and Israeli officials (including Avi Dichter and Moshe Ya’alon); promotes anti-Israel BDS campaigns; urges the U.S. government to stop providing military aid to Israel; presents an entirely biased and distorted view of the conflict and utilizes highly politicized rhetoric, accusing Israel of “war crimes,” “crimes against humanity,” and other such allegations.

In April-May 2018, CCR led a “Justice Delegation” to Israel and the West Bank claiming to provide a “better understand[ing of] the human rights situation in Israel and Palestine.” However, the trip met with Israeli and Palestinian organizations that promote a one-sided Palestinian narrative of the conflict, BDS, lawfare, and antisemitism, and some with alleged ties to terrorism.

On May 14, 2018, the Justice Delegation released a statement accusing Israel of “settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing on Palestinian communities through blatantly obtrusive policies” as well as “structural racism and apartheid.”

In an interview, PCHR director Raji Sourani admitted that he served “a three-year sentence [1979-1982] imposed by an Israeli court which convicted him of membership in the illegal Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine…” He was also denied a US entry visa in 2012.

In February 2014, the PFLP organized a ceremony in Gaza honoring Sourani for winning the “Alternative Noble (sic) Prize.”

In March 2017, Fathi Nemer, Program Officer at RCHRS, wrote an op-ed stating, “The ethnic cleansing, massacres and colonialism needed to establish Israel can never be justified, regardless of who was there first… There is no possible scenario where it is excusable to perpetrate war crimes against a people.”

In December 2016, RCHRS was a signatory on a statement for the “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People” demanding that the “Zionist occupation authorities” be placed “on trial, for war crimes and crimes against humanity which they committed against the Palestinian People” and advocated to “continue working on increasing the international isolation of Israel until imposing international sanctions against it.”

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